Redefining Ownership Under Thai Law: Is It a Right or Title?

Abstract

In current Thai law, ownership is traditionally regarded as a real right applicable only to corporeal objects. An analysis of Supreme Court precedents suggests that certain intangible properties, like shares, are subject to usucapion (adverse possession), while some rights, such as copyrights and trademarks, are not. This leads to the question of which intangible objects may qualify as objects of ownership and could be acquired through usucapion. Furthermore, the paper conducts a comparative survey of ownership concepts in German and French legal systems alongside insights from Roman law articulated by the Gaius Institute. From all the connections, the author argues that ownership should be regarded not as a right but as a title and that its object can be extended to incorporeal objects that satisfy certain conditions, and this will have important implications for explaining why some types of incorporeal property, such as shares, may be acquired through usucapion but that others, such as intellectual property rights, cannot.